Interests and Irritations

I have to say, in my 40 years on this planet I have never seen a more openly transparent and agreeable administration, determined to unite both sides of the political aisle and bond together every view across the ideological spectrum in an amalgam of peace, love, and hope and change. Am I right?

“The White House has told Congress it will reject calls for many of President Obama’s policy czars to testify before Congress – a decision senators said goes against the president’s promises of transparency and openness and treads on Congress’ constitutional mandate to investigate the administration’s actions.”

What I mean to say is, in my 40 years on this planet I have never seen a more secretive and petty administration, determined to divide both sides of the political aisle and rend asunder every view across the ideological spectrum in an amalgam of disharmony, scorn, and hope and change (couldn’t really alter the last part as ‘hope n’ change’ has really become synonymous with insignificance.)

Now let’s take a look at this graphic from the Washington Post a little over a month ago…

Before anyone gets bent out of shape screaming, “Well, the evil Bush had over 40 czars, blar, blar, blar, Bush evil, blar, blar, blar,” take a close look at the above graphic. Bush appointed 5 non-confirmed czar positions in his 8 years (which I still think should’ve been senate confirmed even if they didn’t enforce regulation, unlike the recently appointed Pay czar and Auto Recovery czar, each who did enforce regulation. And Van Jones, should he have floated under the radar, would’ve had tens of billions of dollars to spend while having no accountability to congress.) All the other czar positions during the Bush years were carry-overs from previous administrations.

Obama on the other hand has personally created 16 non-confirmed czars over the past sever or eight months who have no congressional accountability. They simply do what Obama wants. That’s a pretty significant disparity between Bush and Obama. It does seems like an executive branch overreach and an apparent abuse of the checks and balances of our system.

Obama needs to stop being so secretive and divisive and start being what he promised: transparent and a reasonably cooperative uniter.

I’ve posted so much on the sham that is catastrophic anthropogenic global warming that I feel I don’t really need do so anymore. Thankfully, according to a new Pew Research Center poll, Americans are really starting to see that a theory is just that–a theory–and junk-science won’t be taken seriously when so much is on the line.

“There has been a sharp decline over the past year in the percentage of Americans who say there is solid evidence that global temperatures are rising. And fewer also see global warming as a very serious problem — 35% say that today, down from 44% in April 2008.”

I rather see this as a positive sign that people are beginning to question the charlatans who stand to gain so substantially from such shams as cap and trade–frauds like Al Gore and James Hansen–as opposed to the cynical view that is already believed by many liberals that Americans are simply too dumb to know what’s good for them. I’m so looking forward to the day when those on the left (and some on the right) who support the idea that man is primarily responsible for changes in our climate are found… wrong.

By now, assuming you don’t live under a rock and/or you don’t live in extreme denial, most everyone has heard about the electrifying amateur sting operations conducted this past Summer by James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles at a number of ACORN offices around the country. The initial string of undercover videos, where O’keefe sometimes dressed as a pimp and Giles as a prostitute, released almost daily over a period of a couple of weeks or so.

And then the videos stopped.

Many assumed we’d seen all there was to see of the sting videos. Meanwhile ACORN and CEO, Bertha Lewis worked desperately to conduct damage control—denying,suing and bleeding, bleeding, bleeding. Well, guess what? According to Lewis and ACORN, when O’keefe and Giles attempted to orchestrate the same type of undercover maneuver at the Philadelphia office, the young faux-pimp and faux-prostitute were promptly tossed out almost as quickly as they walked in, so honest and respectable and upstanding were ACORN and the manager at that particular branch, Katherine Conway Russell. Well, I guess that didn’t turn out to be these case. So sorry, ACORN. Just stop lying.

Much thanks as usual to Andrew Breitbart and his Big Government website for helping to break these videos. Without further ado…

Case in point… Attorney General Eric Holder dropping all charges against the New Black Panther Party in apparent solidarity. In this day and age, if there are no billy club-wielding thugs brave enough to ominously intimidate white voters, who as we all know are Republicans just as all black voters are Democrats, then who can the Democratic party turn to for salvation?

Thankfully, we won’t have to find out since, as mentioned, Holder dropped all charges against the Panthers. And now, he and Obama persist in their dramatic politicization of the Department of Justice by condescending to voters in the tiny town of Kingston, North Carolina, forcing them to desist in their right to adopt a non-affiliation stance with regards to local elections. The DoJ smugly ruled…

“…partisan elections are needed so that black voters can elect their “candidates of choice” – identified by the department as those who are Democrats and almost exclusively black.”

Old, but I’m late to the game anyway (even thought I’d been familiarized with the “screw you” incident for awhile now… Okay, so I didn’t find out about it day and date.) From Markos Moulitsas Zúniga commenting on Blackwater to his disgustingness’ exposition on Michelle Malkin (one of the coolest people to live in the northern hemisphere) to his sickening note on the death of four American compatriots.

He doesn’t have the stones to clearly reiterate what he said three years ago, just like he didn’t have the stones earlier this year to say outright that he hoped Michelle would be killed during her trip to Iraq even while gleefully imagining the conditions under which that scenario would surely come to pass. The face of the new center of the Democratic Party can’t be seen wishing death on people, no matter how apparent it is that he wishes death on people. So he has to stick to oblique nonsense like this, which tacitly reaffirms the “screw them” comment by spinning it as a defense of the troops instead of the ghoulish callousness towards an atrocity perpetrated upon four of his countrymen that it actually is.

Given the choice, the wingnuts always choose Blackwater over our own troops. They’re not on the same side, and haven’t been ever.

“It was obviously excessive, it was obviously wrong,” said the U.S. military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the incident remains the subject of several investigations. “The civilians that were fired upon, they didn’t have any weapons to fire back at them. And none of the IP (Iraqi Police) or any of the local security forces fired back at them.”

The whole “screw them” thing four [sic] years ago was exactly that — the wingers were more outraged over four Blackwater mercenaries killed than they were about the five Marines that had died that very same day.

He doesn’t believe that — there’s no sane reason why anyone, left, right, or center, would feel worse about the death of a contractor than an American soldier — but the recent Blackwater shooting gives him an opportunity to do damage control on his most notorious political gaffe and he’s taking advantage. At the risk of stating the obvious, the reason the Fallujah incident got so much press was because of the gruesomeness of the attack and the relish that was taken by the enemy in perpetrating it; the same is true for the atrocity committed against Tucker and Menchaca last year. Only a nutroots reptile could be so cold-blooded as not to feel affronted by the scene of four Americans being burned and hung from a bridge while local insurgents celebrated for the cameras, but that’s what this cretin is so that’s how he responds. According to iCasualties, fully 1,001 contractors had been killed in Iraq as of June 30. I’ve been reading blogs since 2002 and while I’ve seen plenty of tributes to fallen soldiers, the only mentions I’ve ever seen of dead contractors have to do with the four killed in the atrocity at Fallujah. Which, needless to say, is an odd quirk for “wingers” allegedly obsessed with protecting their precious heroes from Blackwater.

“Screw them” Kos thinks it would be a “splendid idea” if Michelle leaves the Green Zone without security in her possible upcoming trip to Iraq.

Because only that way will her reporting be fully informed.

Why? Did you think he had another reason in mind?

Greg Sargent has a problem with Eason Jordan going to Iraq with Michelle Malkin. I think it’s a splendid idea. So long as they leave the Green Zone, and without security detail that puts a single US soldier in harm’s way. I mean, things are so splendid and it’s just like Philly and there’s all those great new schools! They’ll be perfectly safe, I’m sure.

This comes from the “man” who said “screw them” to a group of contractors who were savagely beaten and murdered in Iraq in 2004.

The Political Pitbull has posted reaction from other liberals blogs, including our friends at Crooks & Liars.

One of the most despicable websites ever birthed from the deepest, darkest depths of internet.

Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, also known as “Daily Kos,” couldn’t restrain his joy over the gruesome deaths of four of his fellow citizens yesterday, and expressed one of the ugliest sentiments I’ve seen yet on the lefty blogs (and that’s really saying something). His foul pronouncement is in the topic: Corpses on the Cover.

Let the people see what war is like. This isn’t an Xbox game. There are real repercussions to Bush’s folly.

That said, I feel nothing over the death of merceneries. They aren’t in Iraq because of orders, or because they are there trying to help the people make Iraq a better place. They are there to wage war for profit. Screw them.

Kos. Daily Kos. I’m here to save you from yourself because you don’t know any better.

Let the people see what war is like. This isn’t an Xbox game. There are real repercussions to Bush’s folly. That said, I feel nothing over the death of merceneries. They aren’t in Iraq because of orders, or because they are there trying to help the people make Iraq a better place. They are there to wage war for profit. Screw them.

AFTER her husband Marine Private First Class Reuben S. Doronio Jr. was killed in an ambush in Basilan last July 10, Jomarie Doronio received several text messages from her husband’s killers.

One of them asked if he could befriend her. The others inquired about her well-being.

Either way, she could only feel disgust at their attempt to add insult to injury.

The communication began on the day her husband was killed, Jomarie said.

“Pasensya ka na. Nabalitaan naming napatay na ang mister nyo (We’re sorry. We heard that your husband has been killed),” was the text message she received from her husband’s cellular phone number.

“Bastos”

She and her sister-in-law Honeylee called the number but nobody answered.

The next day, the military camp in Basilan confirmed that Reuben was among the 14 marines killed in the encounter with Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels. They had been scouring the jungles for the kidnapped Italian priest, Fr. Giancarlo Bossi, when they were attacked.

Ten of them were beheaded, including her husband, while some of the soldiers had their genitals cut off.

The mutilations spark-ed outrage across the country.

The two women called the acts “bastos” (barbaric).

Honeylee said the rebels again sent 10 more text messages to Jomarie, still using her brother’s number.

One of them was, “Puwede ba makigpag-kaibigan (Can we be friends)?”

Honeylee said the sender might have fallen for Jomarie after he saw her picture on her husband’s phone.

“Naibog gyud na nimo (He must like you),” Honeylee told Jomarie.

The messages only stopped when Honeylee told them, through text message, “One day, you will also suffer the pain we have at present.”

The two, united in grief, vowed never to forgive Reuben’s killers.

The rest of the family is also seeking justice for his death.

His father Doronio Sr. described him as a brave and compassionate person.

Appeal

“It was unfortunate that he died young,” was the sentiment shared by the victim’s brothers and other relatives.

Reuben’s body lies in state at the Cebu Rolling Hills Memorial Chapels in Banilad, Cebu City.

He will be buried on Saturday.

Doronio Sr. told Sun.Star Cebu that despite the pain they are feeling right now, he is appealing to the Muslim rebels responsible for their deaths to free Fr. Bossi and return to the fold of the law.

Reuben graduated with a degree in science and education at the Cebu State College of Science and Technology at the age of 19.

He might have chosen the field of education because of his mother, who is a Department of Education supervisor in their hometown of Borbon, said his father.

But instead of practicing his profession, he joined the Marines at the age of 20, so he could serve his country.

Reuben turned 25 last Feb. 10.

Surprise visit

He married Jomarie on May 25, 2006. The couple has a five-month-old son Lexben Gabriel who was born last Feb. 12.
Doronio Sr. said his son flew to Manila last week to visit a friend who was in the hospital.

He suddenly showed up in Borbon to visit his family, but he did not stay long.

According to his father, Reuben asked him to buy a plane ticket for his trip to the Basilan military camp so he could join his group in the search for the missing priest.

“The last thing I can remember (of him) is that he smiled while bidding goodbye to us,” Doronio Sr. said. (EOB)

Muslim on Muslim violence does not divert the hypocritical gaze of the jihadist. Only imagined conflict pitting the west and modernity against Islam and tradition draws their ire.

While our foreign policy–that being the west in general–does play a role in stoking the naked hatred and aggression of terror groups such as al-Qaida, Abu Sayyaf, Hezbollah, and Hamas, it by no means consists as the primary make-up of the whole, and to claim as much is disingenuous. It is the Islamist ideology that stands at the center of their philosophical, religious, and political ideologies that exists as their principal rationalization behind their actions; all stemming from the Qur’an and the Hadith and a desire to emulate in all things their prophet, Muhammad.

Whether it be lying (taqqiya), plural marriage, spousal abuse, pedophilia, or murder, all is justifiable in the pages of the Muslim holy text with Muhammad setting the proper example for all good followers of Islam.

So while suicide and car bomb attacks will likely persist for decades, while the west continues to embrace such concepts as political correctness, multiculturalism, one-world governments, and unbridled, reckless equality, those who wish us harm will continue to exploit those weaknesses until, under our very noses, sharia law rules the land–overly dramatic yes, but a point that cries out for continued repetition rather than an absurd impossibility. Until our leaders can fully understand a concept of life within Dar al-Islam, we will only trudge ever on toward that possibility.

The events of the last few days have been sobering for us all. The response from some UK Muslim groups (influenced by Islamist thinking) is still largely to blame foreign policy (undoubtedly an exacerbating influence but not the cause), rather than marching “not in my name” in revulsion against terrorist acts committed in Islam’s name. By blaming foreign policy they try to divert pressure off themselves from the real need to tackle extremism being peddled within. Diverting attention away from the problems within Muslim communities and blaming others – especially the west – is always more popular than the difficult task of self-scrutiny. And what part of foreign policy do the Islamists want us to change to tackle terrorism? Withdrawal from Iraq?

The UK presence on the ground in Iraq is minuscule compared to the US. We currently have 5,500 troops from 40,000 at the start of the invasion. We will reduce them further to 5,000 by the end of the summer. The bulk of which will be located near Basra airport in a supporting role. Next year will likely see the numbers dwindle even further. Our troop presence is far more symbolic than military. It provides the Americans with their “coalition of the willing”. The US, by contrast, is the only serious occupier in the country with over 160,000 troops. The government will not (and cannot) admit it, but we have been in withdrawal mode since the end of the war.

And once we’ve left Iraq, will they be satisfied? Of course not. Their list of grievances is endless: Afghanistan, Chechnya, Kashmir, Palestine, Burma … so long as the world is presented as one where the west is forever at war with Islam and Muslims there is nothing we can do to appease the terrorists and those who share their world view. Instead it is this extremist world view that must change.

Take for example the idea that radical Islamists are concerned about Muslim life (let’s ignore human life in general for a moment). Where is their outrage at the 400,000 Muslims slaughtered in Darfur? Where are the marches and calls for action against this ongoing genocide? Where is the “Muslim anger” boiling up amongst British Islamists? It is nowhere to be seen because the Darfurians have been massacred by fellow Muslims, not by the west. Hence it does not appear on the Islamist radar screen as a “grievance”. Such is the moral bankruptcy of this ideology.

No, it’s not foreign policy that’s the main driver in combating the terrorists; it is their mindset. The radical Islamist ideology needs to be exposed to young Muslims for what it really is. A tool for the introduction of a medieval form of governance that describes itself as an “Islamic state” that is violent, retrogressive, discriminatory, a perversion of the sacred texts and a totalitarian dictatorship.

When the IRA was busy blowing up London, there would have been little point in Irish “community leaders” urging “all” citizens to cooperate with the police equally when it was obvious the problem lay specifically within Irish communities. Likewise for Muslim “community leaders” to condemn terrorism is a no-brainer. What is required is for those that claim to represent and have influence among young British Muslims to proactively counter the extremist Islamist narrative. That is the biggest challenge for British Muslim leadership over the next five to 10 years. It is because they are failing to rise to this challenge that the government feels it needs to act by further eroding our civil liberties with anti-terror legislation to get the state to do what Muslims should be doing themselves. If British Muslim groups focus on grassroots de-radicalisation then this will provide civil liberty groups the space they need to argue against any further anti-terror legislation.

Of course I would like to see changes in our foreign policy and have marched on the streets (with thousands of non-Muslims) in protest on many occasions. But blaming foreign policy in the face of suicide attacks is not only tactless but a cop-out that fails to tackle extremism, fails to promote an ethical foreign policy and fails to protect our civil liberties.